Hip & TR, on the Trail Again

Well hello again! The last time we spoke, I was getting off of the AT for a couple of weeks so I could travel to Canada to attend my dad's memorial service in his hometown. I knew I was going back to the trail afterwards, but beyond that I hadn't determined any of the details. Well, spoiler alert: I finished the trail. I skipped ahead and met back up with Hip (now more commonly known as Mike) in Vermont and hiked the rest of the trail to Maine with him. We summited Katahdin together, which was just an incredible experience that I can't really put into words. Despite not having hiked every mile of the AT yet, standing on top of Katahdin at the northern terminus of the trail was still a feeling like none other. After summiting, my mother met the two of us at the bottom of the mountain and drove us around Maine/Acadia National Park for a few days before taking Mike back to his home on Long Island. This was right by where I had gotten off trail before Canada, so I just hopped back on and picked it all back up. My mom slackpacked me for a few days so I could crush some miles (which I did), and then she left me on my own and I kept pushing hard by myself to get up to Vermont where I had met back up with Mike. After yet another terrible physical experience where I unknowingly got some sand in the waistband of my shorts and subsequently rubbed both of my hips entirely raw (I'll save you the disgust and not share those photos), I made it up to Vermont and Mike came to pick me up! So despite it being a little out of order, I did complete the AT that summer. Woohoo!

So if you haven't picked up on this yet, I'll let you in on a little secret: Mike and I finally realized that we were kinda sorta meant to be, so we adjusted our life plans to fit each other into them. Post-trail, I abandoned my plan to return to Oklahoma and moved to Charlottesville, Virginia with the intent to attend UVA for grad school in Fall 2016. Mike got a job in Blacksburg, Virginia, which was the closest together that we could get while still accomplishing our current professional goals. We traveled back and forth for the last year, hiking as much as possible and adjusting to post-thru hike life together. Plans changed again, as they tend to do, and I decided on VCU's urban planning program rather than UVA's. It might have helped that Mike decided to attend VCU for a master's in public administration for the fall, too. We now have classes we're registered in for August, an apartment in Richmond we've signed a lease on, and, oh, no jobs again. 

We like to say that we failed at the real world after getting off of the AT. It's a super hard adjustment returning to a desk job after living in the woods for 5+ months, and both of us being in jobs we didn't enjoy made it even harder. So after we decided that we were quitting our jobs and moving and going to grad school in the fall, we realized that we were presented with an interesting opportunity. If we quit our jobs a few weeks earlier, we could have the entire summer to ourselves to do whatever we wanted. And, as is typical for this couple, "whatever we want" is traveling and backpacking. Which leads me to the purpose of this post: we are road tripping around America, visiting at least 13 different national parks, and backpacking or day hiking in all of them (Happy 100th Birthday, NPS). We're taking a couple of days to visit my alma mater and my friends in Oklahoma, and then it will be backcountry time once again. Our big stops will be Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Redwood, Crater Lake, Olympic, Banff, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Badlands. There are a few more parks and stops that will be scattered in there, plus a drive up Highway 1 and visits with some more of our friends and family spread out along the way. All in all, it's going to be another incredible summer for the two of us, filled with hiking and climbing and backpacking and joy. We just know for certain we're ending up together at the end of this one. ❤️

Follow along for Hip & TR's next big adventure. It should be quite the ride.